Natural Science (song)

"Natural Science"
Song by Rush
from the album Permanent Waves
Released	14 January 1980
Recorded	1979, Le Studio, Quebec
Genre	Progressive rock hard rock
Length	9:20
Label	Mercury
Producer(s)	Rush and Terry Brown

"Natural Science" is a song by the Canadian rock band Rush. It was released on their 1980 album Permanent Waves, as the final song on it. It is over nine minutes long and is composed of three distinct movements: I) Tide Pools, II) Hyperspace, and III) Permanent Waves.

Background

"Natural Science" is about how people can forget about nature because of technology, and how we must value the Earth. Producer Terry Brown and assistant Kim Bickerdike used oars in lake water to make the splashing sounds at the beginning of the song.

Guitarist Alex Lifeson said:

Once we had the guitar track down, we stuck a speaker cabinet outside—this was up at the studio in Morin Heights, Quebec—and we recorded the natural echo off the mountains in combination with the sound of splashing water and Geddy's voice. We didn't use any sort of synthetic echo on the water track.

Parts

Part	Title	Starting time (*)	Length (*)
I	Tide Pools	0:00	2:18
II	Hyperspace	2:19	2:49
III	Permanent Waves	5:09	4:08
		Total Running time	9:20

Further reading

• Berti, Jim; Bowman, Durrell (2011). Reisch, George A. (ed.). Rush and philosophy: heart and mind united. Popular Culture and Philosophy. Vol. 57. Open Court Publishing Company. ISBN 9780812697162. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Popoff, Martin (2017). Rush: Album by Album. Voyageur Press (The Quarto Group). ISBN 9780760357699. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)